Former Officer Becomes Pot Crusader

[Jim Finnel]

A retired Winnipeg police officer has turned pot crusader, calling for marijuana to be legalized.

Former staff sgt. Bill VanderGraaf, 58, told CBC News he believes marijuana is less harmful than other substances and it's time for regulation.

"We control gambling, we control cigarettes, and we control alcohol — and alcohol is perhaps the worst of all the substances." he said. "I think it's more dangerous than a lot of the chemical substances that are out there."

VanderGraaf said marijuana isn't the dangerous gateway drug that some make it out to be, and he believes in its medicinal benefits.

"It's quite a beneficial substance. It helps a lot of people and hey, I quite enjoy it, to be honest," he said.

VanderGraaf was convicted in 2007 of growing marijuana in his home in the city's East Kildonan neighbourhood.

Already retired at the time, after nearly 30 years on the force, he was charged with production and possession of pot after police pulled 21 plants and growing equipment from his house.

VanderGraaf said he was using the drug for his own enjoyment and to treat the pain of his ailing father, who was suffering from ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

The medicinal marijuana that he provided to his father was a better pain reliever than traditional treatments for the cramps and discomfort caused by the disease, VanderGraaf said.


NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: cbc.ca
Copyright: 2009 CBC
Contact: CBC.ca - Contact Us Page
Website: Former officer becomes pot crusader

 

[Weed420]

Another convert. Good to see.

 

[Jim Finnel]

i can't help but wonder how many pot busts he was a part of before he retired to his green years. still, i'm glad he found Cannabis and that it helps him deal with his medical problems. it would be nice if enlightened officers took a stand while they are still working. perhaps refusing to participate in the enforcement of laws they know are unjust. but that might come with a cost. doing whats right often comes with a cost.

 

[tronix]

i can't help but wonder how many pot busts he was a part of before he retired to his green years. still, i'm glad he found Cannabis and that it helps him deal with his medical problems. it would be nice if enlightened officers took a stand while they are still working. perhaps refusing to participate in the enforcement of laws they know are unjust. but that might come with a cost. doing whats right often comes with a cost.

In this economy, none of us, can ask a person to give up a decent paying job, with good benefits, just to make a point. It would be nice, but it would require someone willing to completely disrupt their lives..and someone who could survive such a thing financially. There have been and are cops who more on our side than you know. My friend, had two 1/4 oz. sacks on him, when we got pulled, they found both of them. I was being held in the back of a cop car, while my tag was being looked up, because my tag wasn't registered to my truck. The officer, weighed one 1/4 sack, which come out exactly 8.5 grams (with the bag of course) and that's exactly what he wrote on the report where it asked for total amount. All the while, he was "chatting" with me, about how they really don't care if we smoke it, just don't drive around with it. (a'ka, I copped one of those bags, so your buddy, gets a lessor charge, and I get a sack.) I know he had two of them, I was there when he bought it.
so there are plenty, I'm sure, who are stuck in the one job where occasionally you have to go after fellow smokers, because of happenstance. The same friend got pulled over, and their car got searched, he had roaches in the ashtray, and more weed in a bag in the back seat, and the cop let them go with a warning, later he found the roaches laying on the floorboard, and the bag was untouched..

I can only imagine, that the cops probably smoked, but they got an order to search the vehicle, because of the prior, But they had to make it look good for the dash cam, so they did the search, leaving everything as though they didn't see it, and the roaches on the floorboard, so my friend knew, he had got a break from them.

 

[Jim Finnel]

there once was a time when personal sacrifice in the cause of what was right wasn't as uncommon as it is now. imo if you enforce an unjust law you are unjust. if a cop busts someone and while they are in jail bad things happen to them or because of a criminal record they are denied opportunities/school/employment then the arresting officer carries some of the responsibiliy. "we are only following orders", where have i heard that before.

 

[zanadoo]

I hope these converts put much more effort into helping the movement then they did in trying to stop it. It shouldn't take them or someone they
love getting busted or cancer to start "caring"...who knows one though, one of those people might actually see the light, and really step up to
the plate.

 

[Oddnonsmoker]

The cops in small towns and rural areas are often more tolerant of weed than the big city cops or state troopers. The cop in a rural area likely grew up with half of the people he has jurisdiction over, and chances are, he is friends with most of them. Likewise, the people he has jurisdiction over know him and his family really well, which is why they were put in their position. He sees them as people, and doesn't want to stir up any more trouble than he has to by arresting somebody for something completely pointless. One of my friends had to call in the county sheriff to report a robbery and he had a small plant in his backyard. The sheriff basically said, "don't let the stateys see that" and ignored the plant otherwise. The only time our cops care about weed is if somebody calls up and complains, if they're trying to get somebody for something else, or if it's obviously visible from the road. A chopper flies over once or twice in the fall, but that's run by the state.

A big city cop, though, doesn't know almost all of the people in his jurisdiction. They're no longer people to him. He doesn't fell as bad about nailing somebody with an offense that will ruin their life. He is "doing his job."

 

[merickson]

i can't help but wonder how many pot busts he was a part of before he retired to his green years. still, i'm glad he found Cannabis and that it helps him deal with his medical problems. it would be nice if enlightened officers took a stand while they are still working. perhaps refusing to participate in the enforcement of laws they know are unjust. but that might come with a cost. doing whats right often comes with a cost.

I have to disagree with that approach. It not for a cop to decide which laws are unjust. (Hypothetical, what if I cop thinks its OK to beat up a gay who propositions you?)

I want cops who will enforce the law. That way, when we win, we've won. We don't then have to convince the cops that the new pot laws are "just".

 

[Jim Finnel]

It not for a cop to decide which laws are unjust.

no its for human beings to decide. their membership in humanity should rise above their membership in law enforcement. or do they put aside their humanity when they pin on the badge? sadly i feel many do. it might not happen right away. maybe it happens due to the nature of the job.

there are many legal ways for a person to do evil. there are no moral (for lack of a better word since morality is subjective) ways for a person to do evil. i understand that whats just/unjust or moral/evil are subjective. but lets stick with a person who works in enforcement (cops,judges,prosecutors,prison guards etc) and has come to see that our prohibition laws concerning Cannabis are unjust. how such a person continues to enforce/sustain such laws is just beyond me. i'm just too damn idealistic i guess. i'd have gone further in life (by some peoples reckoning) if i wasn't so idealistic thats for sure.


Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. - Thomas Jefferson

If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. - Thomas Jefferson

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. - Mahatma Gandhi

 

[BWC BayArea]

Good Point

there once was a time when personal sacrifice in the cause of what was right wasn't as uncommon as it is now. imo if you enforce an unjust law you are unjust. if a cop busts someone and while they are in jail bad things happen to them or because of a criminal record they are denied opportunities/school/employment then the arresting officer carries some of the responsibiliy. "we are only following orders", where have i heard that before.

Wow. That is profound, helluva point. +REP if I can